[Holyghost]

Originally Posted by ecenandu

Buddy, any inroads made to solve the KSEB bill situation?

Thanks for sending the bill. I didn't get time to visit the KSEB office. I will update once I visit them.

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Hmmm... After all that I have said, I went to bed last night thinking why shouldn't I go for an on-grid system, with the aim of a major reduction in electricity bills?

Now I must revisit the posts of you guys with grid-tied systems

For your usage, you should be seriously considering a Grid-Tie system.
A 3KW system costing ~2L will bring down your bi-monthly usage by 600 Units.
A 5KW system costing ~3L will bring down your consumption by ~1000 Units.

However, A word of advice for you and all others who are planning to install grid-tie systems: Please WAIT for next 6 Months - 1 Year.
The new range of Hybrid Grid Inverters have started hitting the market. These inverters are Grid-Tied systems with Battery backup. In short it is both a Grid-Tie and an Off-Grid system in one unit.

I could only find 3 manufacturers selling it here in India. Schneider and Studer are officially selling imported units, but costs a bomb (4 times the cost of normal Grid Tie). I saw another manufacturer FlinSlim selling rebranded Chinese Inverter with same features. Once other manufacturers starts selling these inverters, the prices will come down significantly.

I had been trying to add an off-grid system to my Grid-Tie setup for a while but all such systems will cost a few lakhs. The Hybrid inverter from FlinSlim costs an additional Rs 60K compared to a 5KW normal Grid-Tie inverter and it can work without batteries as well. So you have the option to add batteries at a later stage to get off-grid functionality.

[ecenandu]

Originally Posted by ecenandu

Update.
So raised a complaint and the Engineer came down and had a check, looks like they have done some fundamental mistake, he was evasive on what was the actual reason for the low production. Last two days we are getting an average of 17 units.

Atlast, found out the actual reason, we had two strings of 300V, 2.5 kW (10 panels in series). They connected only one string to the inverter, so for nearly a month we were producing at half the capacity.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by Holyghost

However, A word of advice for you and all others who are planning to install grid-tie systems: Please WAIT for next 6 Months - 1 Year.

Thank you very much for all your feedback and advice. Much appreciated/

The Hybrid inverter from FlinSlim

Seen it on Amazon, I think. It is green... and slim, right?

The company that I got my Honda pump from are really good people. They sell a brand of solar system (their main lines are diesel/petrol pumps and generators). It looked interesting, but after reading the feedback on the web, I decided not to even ask about it. Sorry, I've forgotten the name: I'll search for the link.

Anyway, I've been literally scraping together the small change to see how much I could put together, but I've decided to stop this and wait, both for a little more capital and future hybrid developments.

[ecenandu]

Originally Posted by Holyghost

However, A word of advice for you and all others who are planning to install grid-tie systems: Please WAIT for next 6 Months - 1 Year.

Yes buddy. For my uncle's place we are planning to put a good system. Currently we are confused on which system to buy. We might not go the subsidy route this time. Anyway, we are planning to put a smart meter and log the electricity consumption(24*7) over say 6 - 8 months and then decide which system to buy.

For us, dad was adamant on grid tie solution, he didn't like the idea of battery banks and its recurring cost every 6 to 8 years. Graaja, how hard is the maintenance? Water top up every 6 months?

My installer talked about gel batteries, which he claims to be maintenance free, how good are these.

Exide Solatron

Currently in research phase for his installation, will commit to it next year or later. Will update this thread with all the information I collect, so that bhpians can chip in and suggest improvements to the setup.

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

future hybrid developments.

Possibly cheaper as well.

[graaja]

Originally Posted by ecenandu

Graaja, how hard is the maintenance? Water top up every 6 months?

In terms of regular maintenance, not much. Just water top up every 4 to 6 months. I get this done by the installer. They charge INR 500, for the topup + the cost of water which comes to around INR 400.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Flin Energy

Very interesting.

I am impressed by the presentation. Plenty of technical information, with manuals available online. SuKam manuals look like sales brochures, Luminous are very low on on-line info. Flin have proper user/technical manuals available.

Is this an American company operating in India, or an Indian company with operations in USA? I may not judge a book by its cover, but I do judge a company by its online manuals

Adopting Holyghost's advice: watching and waiting.

[kevintomin]

Parent company is Voltronic (http://www.voltronicpower.com/) a Taiwanese company.

Their transformer less product line is good. You get quality product at half the price of SMA.

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Flin Energy



Is this an American company operating in India, or an Indian company with operations in USA? I may not judge a book by its cover, but I do judge a company by its online manuals

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by kevintomin

Parent company is Voltronic (http://www.voltronicpower.com/) a Taiwanese company.

It's a pity it is not original, but still looking good.

[ecenandu]

Okay, here is my latest figures.

One thing I have observed after installing the on grid solar solution is, our consumption has almost doubled, hmm. This month 618 units.

BTW, you can get a similar system from TATA solar for 2.32 lakhs

Source

[Lalvaz]

Originally Posted by ecenandu

Okay, here is my latest figures.

Attachment 1635754

One thing I have observed after installing the on grid solar solution is, our consumption has almost doubled, hmm. This month 618 units.

Why has your consumption doubled after installing on grid solar? Is it that your actual consumption has increased since you no longer feel the need to switch off appliances or is this increase due to some error in connecting the solution?

[skumare]

2 KW On-grid system quoted at Hyd by one of the startup companies:
post subsidy - Rs 1,30,000 plus 15,000 to cover taxes, installation etc
25yr warranty - minimum 80% performance
5yr warranty on inverter, batteries
300 units average production per month in Hyd

Is this something I should consider now or will the prices go down considerably in the next 6..12 months?

[ecenandu]

Originally Posted by Lalvaz

Why has your consumption doubled after installing on grid solar? Is it that your actual consumption has increased since you no longer feel the need to switch off appliances or is this increase due to some error in connecting the solution?

Change in behaviour, I guess. Previously AC is used for 6 hours, after we installed the inverter AC, now daily usage is around 9 - 10 hours.

"you no longer feel the need to switch off appliances"

Nope, never.

More over, we had guests for two weeks, they also used the 0 star AC 7 hrs daily for two weeks. So increase in consumption has got reasons.

[null]

Has anybody from Bangalore installed a grid tie system at their home here? If yes, what were the legal hassles? how easy was it to get the approvals & connectivity? Any palm greasing involved?(obvious I guess, how much)

[rajathv8]

Originally Posted by DDIS

People in Bangalore with a terrace and space for SPP are welcome to visit

DDIS has it in Blore. You can read details on his post.

[ecenandu]

Originally Posted by skumare

2 KW On-grid system quoted at Hyd by one of the startup companies:
post subsidy - Rs 1,30,000 plus 15,000 to cover taxes, installation etc
25yr warranty - minimum 80% performance
5yr warranty on inverter, batteries
300 units average production per month in Hyd

Is this something I should consider now or will the prices go down considerably in the next 6..12 months?

Pricing seems okay, but it is dependent on the battery bank, Power conditioning unit(PCU), solar panel used. So just do bit of research on the brands used, ease of serviceability etc.

300 units per month from a 2kW seems to be bit over optimistic, pay visit or try contacting people who has already done the installation of a similar solution.

Do keep in mind the recurring cost of battery every 6-7 years.

On the pricing front, there is more competition now and better solar solution are coming in to the market, so I think the prices will go down in the future. That is why you need to buy from a reputable company, atleast the PCU so you can get service backup in the future.

My advice to you will be to research more on the solutions available, get quotes from multiple providers with the products they use and take a call.

This thread got good amount of information, please go through them. Refer graaja's posts, he already installed a similar solution, 3.3 kW.